


"We really need to stop meeting like this"

by FangsofLightening



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: 4+1, M/M, relationship develops off screen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 15:46:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17511407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FangsofLightening/pseuds/FangsofLightening
Summary: Four times Loqi was already stuck when Cor found him, and one time he got stuck after.





	"We really need to stop meeting like this"

-1-

It was absurd. Just... Not at all what Cor had expected to find when he came out here. 

"Are you going to help me or stand there staring?" 

Loqi's annoyed tone snapped Cor out of his musings and back to the situation. 

The young Imperial general was tied to a pole like some kind of sacrifice. Or some kind of criminal in ancient times about to be burnt at the stake. Upon looking, Cor could see that his armor was behind him. How exactly this had happened, he wasn't sure. 

"Some kind of obscure cult decide you were the perfect sacrifice?" 

"Very funny Leonis." Loqi laughed, unamused and sarcastic. "My so-called comrades left me here. I have yet to figure out why." 

Maybe it had something to do with his wonderful personality. Rather than state that opinion, Cor crossed his arms and kept the grin off his face. Neutrality was his best option for now. 

"Why exactly should I not leave you here?" 

If Cor untied him, Loqi was more likely than not to run off and continue doing Niflheim's bidding. Which made him an enemy better left where he was. 

"Can you leave me here in good conscience, knowing that I am likely to be devoured alive by one of the many creatures living around here?" 

The tone, the way he looked at Cor with wide eyes, lips parted in disbelief... Loqi knew what he was doing.

"You are far more heartless than the rumors say." 

Cor closed his eyes and cursed the very fact that Loqi Tummelt was part of his life. A highly aggravating, persistent part that he couldn't seem to rid himself of. 

"I'm not heartless," Cor argued. "I have no reason to release an enemy soldier from being tied to a pole." 

He turned to leave, shoving aside his nagging conscience telling him not to leave Loqi there. 

"If they're respectable people," he said, "your comrades will release you before anything happens."

"My comrades are the people who put me here!" 

"I'm sure they'll be back." Cor stopped and turned to regard Loqi again. "Your comrades wouldn't leave you to die." 

Loud laughter was not what he had expected to hear. 

"You are Lucian; you wouldn't understand."

Cor stared at Loqi. 

"What is that supposed to mean?" 

"Exactly what I said. Trust me, they are not coming back for me." 

It could be a lie. Or people from Niflheim were more cruel than Cor had thought. Either way, it was decided.

"I'm going to regret this." 

-2-

"Mind telling me how you got into this?" 

Loqi was stuck. Cor was staring at his backside. His very nice, shapely backside... But that was beside the point. 

"What does it look like?" Loqi snapped. Cor could barely hear his muffled voice. "I was attempting to retrieve an item that fell down here, and got stuck." 

As if to prove his point, Loqi pushed himself back and only succeeded in granting Cor an even better view of his ass and thighs. If he cared to look. 

"I think something shifted and prevented me from going either direction."

"Have you tried-"

"Yes, Leonis," Loqi interrupted. "I have tried everything that makes any sense." 

Cor studied the rock around Loqi, kneeling down beside him to get a better look. 

"Don't you dare try anything," Loqi warned. 

As tempted as he was to place his hand on Loqi's ass in retaliation for the partial insult, Cor refrained. Nothing worth the headache would come from following that particular urge. It was rude to touch people in such a manner without permission anyway. 

After a few minutes of examining the stones around Loqi, Cor came to the conclusion that he could indeed safely move the rocks enough for Loqi to get free.

"If I move-"

"Don't you move anything!"

Cor huffed and crossed his arms despite Loqi's inability to see the motion. Moving the rocks was the only way to get him out. 

"Do you want out or not?" 

Unsurprisingly, there was a few moments of silence before Loqi responded. The choice between accepting help and retaining pride... Cor understood well how Loqi was feeling. 

"Yes..." 

"Then shut up and let me help."

-3-

There had been rumors of the Niffs sending someone out here to investigate some ruins. Cor had been uncertain, but it definitely looked as though a magitek engine had landed here earlier. Which meant he had to continue and see what he found. 

Wary of the possible MTs in the area, Cor held his katana at the ready as he walked forward. There was no way of knowing how many of those robotic soldiers would be here or which officer he'd be dealing with. 

If he was lucky, it would be Loqi. 

The sight that greeted him ten minutes later made him stop in his tracks and simply stare. 

He found General Loqi... tangled in vines... Cor evenly exhaled and tried not to think about the pose Loqi was in. 

Loqi looked down, their gazes met, and Loqi's cheeks flushed. 

"What are you staring at?" he yelled. "I can- dammit- get out of these myself! Then I'm going to defeat you!" 

Watching Loqi's attempts at freeing himself only bind him more brought up feelings Cor deemed entirely inappropriate for the situation. He crossed his arms- a common occurrence when dealing with Loqi- and smirked. 

"You're doing a fine job of it," Cor said. "How'd you get there?" 

"None of your business!" 

Typical Loqi. 

"I doubt the vines grabbed you on their own." 

There were some strange plants out there- usually native to Tenebrae- but he'd never heard of one that grabbed a person on its own.

Loqi's face flushed more and Cor willed himself not to look away from the sight. That would be admitting to those inappropriate thoughts and attraction. 

"Fine," Loqi snarled. "I fell, landed in them, and somehow managed to get tangled up." 

A reasonable explanation. Judging by how things looked, Cor doubted Loqi was going to be getting himself out of those vines. All he could do was wait for Loqi to realize that. 

"Let me know when you want down." 

"Fuck off Leonis." 

It was another hour before Loqi finally slumped in the vines. Cor raised an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything. 

"Why haven't you left yet?" Loqi panted at him, face flushed from his efforts at untangling himself.

"I'm not going to leave you here." 

"You just enjoy seeing me like this." 

"Night will be falling soon," Cor pointed out. 

It wasn't as if he hadn't helped Loqi before. Or as if they didn't have some sort of relationship. Even if it was built on attraction, sex, and a promise that they wouldn't fall in love. Enemies with benefits, Loqi had called it. 

"Fine," Loqi grumbled. "Get me down."

The vines broke under his blade, Loqi fell into his arms, and the ground beneath them crumbled. 

-4-

The echo of Loqi's shout didn't provide any information where the general was. He'd run off much faster than Cor had been expecting the moment they'd recovered from the fall and Cor hadn't seen him since. It did, however, cause a fear that Cor hadn't felt since he saw the smoke rising from the Citadel as Lucis fell to grip him.

It took half an hour for Cor to find Loqi. Stuck again. Down in a hole that Cor assumed had opened up beneath him. These old ruins had a tendency to shift and change without warning. 

Unsettling relief swirled in him and he ignored the evidence that what they had was something more than they'd said it would be. 

"You have a knack for getting yourself stuck," Cor remarked.

"Shut up." 

After how long he'd been down there and the time he'd been in the vines, Cor thought for sure that Loqi wouldn't be as stubbornly against his help this time. 

"I can get myself out," Loqi announced. 

Cor doubted that very much, but didn't say anything. 

Instead, he sat down and watched as Loqi attempted to find a handhold in smooth stone. Eventually, the floor would lift again. Or close, whichever had happened. Cor couldn't just leave him and continue on with that uncertainty lingering over him. 

"So what happened?" 

"The floor just vanished," Loqi snapped. "Now be quiet so I can concentrate!"

For a few moments, Cor was. 

"You're lucky there was something down there." 

The look Loqi gave him definitely fell into the 'if looks could kill' category. Cor was immune to especially Loqi's by now.

"You know it'll close over you eventually." 

"There is some trick to getting back out. They would build some way of getting out in the event that one of their own fell in." 

Cor wasn't so sure of that, but he'd leave Loqi to his hoping. He stood again and looked around. In his experience, controls for traps weren't in reasonable locations and ancient ruins didn't have them to begin with. But it was worth looking around. 

Maybe he'd find whatever the Niffs were looking for and could keep it out of their hands. 

Or he could pull something out of Noctis' armiger. There would be something useful in there. 

"Dammit!" Loqi shouted. "This is ridiculous!" 

That settled it. Cor reached into Noctis' still unfamiliar armiger, digging around until he found a rope. Hopefully they weren't in need of it. 

Once he had one end tied around a sturdy column, he tossed the other down and ignored Loqi's glare. 

"You know we're going to have to go on a date after this," Loqi said. 

"Sure." 

+1 

The battle had been going on longer than it usually did. With the rest of the base in the battle as well, Cor supposed that wasn't surprising. Nor was the fact that Loqi continued his attack even when it was clear he had already lost. Whatever else they did, in the end they remained on opposing sides of a war. 

Barely dodging another missile, Cor resisted the urge to yell at Loqi. That wouldn't do him any good. 

Instead, he avoided fire from the base itself and searched for a way to end this before they both died. Incapacitating his mech would force Loqi to eject and hopefully get out of the flaming ruins.

It took a few well-aimed swings of his katana for the pink mech to fall to the ground. 

The top didn't open.

"Shit," he heard Loqi over the speakers. "Shit!" 

"Loqi?" 

It still wasn't opening. Loqi's mech wasn't responding the way it should have been. 

Cor ran toward the fallen mech before he could stop to think about what he was doing. The fire was spreading fast, eagerly following the oil that he had foolishly caused to spread across the cement. In his experience, it wasn't too long before the mech exploded without any fire helping it along.

"Loqi, talk to me! What's going on?" 

"It won't open! I can't- I'm-" 

That sounded dangerously close to hysterics. Panicking was not going to help Loqi. 

"Loqi. Stay calm, I-"

"I can't get out!" Loqi yelled at him. "You expect me to remain calm right now?" 

"Panicking will just make it worse." 

His katana could open it, in theory. It could cut through enough to force it down like this in the first place... Cor looked over the top, scanning his options and ignoring that he could hear something suspiciously like crying.

"Get down Loqi." 

The last thing Cor wanted to do was hurt him in his efforts to get him out. He had no idea where exactly Loqi was in there. Just an estimate based off Loqi's stature and the size of the mech. 

"You good?" 

"Hurry up!"

Keeping as close to the top as reasonably possible, Cor stabbed through the metal on the side and sliced across. It didn't take long to get it open enough for Loqi to squeeze through.

"Come on." 

Loqi scrambled out and the two of them ran out of the base as the mech exploded. 

Just hearing Loqi's crying had been bad enough. Now he could actually see the tears and how much of a mess he was. 

"You're alive and safe now." 

"I- I almost..." 

Loqi cried harder and Cor grimaced. He had never been terribly good at comforting people, even after helping look after Noctis. That and, despite the relationship, he didn't think Loqi would accept any. 

"I'm not ready to-" Loqi choked on the word and Cor pulled him into a hug. 

Petting Loqi's hair was the only thing he could think of to do. The armor prevented him from rubbing his back or holding him any tighter. 

"No one is ever ready to die," Cor said. "Even when they think they are, when the time comes..." 

Loqi looked up at him and Cor brushed a few tears from his cheek. Cor managed a smile.

"Great reminder that you're human." 

Loqi buried his face in Cor's shirt again and Cor ignored the way he could feel Loqi's armor pressing uncomfortably into him.


End file.
